The field of the invention is in the art of physical measuring by electrical sensors in the presence of intense electrical fields.
Reference junctions for thermocouple devices are well known. In these instances, a hot and a cold junction are established and the difference in voltages generated between two dissimilar metals at the junctions provides an indication of the temperature at one junction, usually the hot one, if the voltage generated at the other junction, usually temperature controlled, is known.
In prior conventional attempts to monitor the re-entry effects on materials and objects (such as they would encounter in re-entering the earth's atmosphere from outer space) in an electro-gasdynamic facility in which electrical fields (both static and magnetic) in very close proximity to the monitoring sensors involve discharges ranging from 50 to 100 million watts of electrical power, very erratic and unsatisfactory indications from the monitoring sensors were obtained. The monitoring sensors generally not only included thermocouple temperature sensors but position sensors, strain sensors, erosion sensors, flow sensors, and others. In the test setup it is desirable to be able to easily change sensors. It has been discovered that the electrical connections made to the leads of the sensors frequently become quite erratic and often voltage potential sources in environments of extremely high electrical fields.